Mid-Spring Three-Deep

Time to update the ol' three-deep. I've been to three open sessions at practice (stretching and special teams work, mostly) plus the full open practice last Friday night so I think I'm ready to do some depth chart guessing.

And I have to say... this is probably the fastest I've ever assembled a spring depth chart. Mostly because I don't need to look to the summer enrollees (juco or high school recruits) to fill out the third string. I feel like we already know nearly every player we'll see on the field this fall.

That's not typical in Champaign. Because it's not Standard Operating Procedure for Illinois football to bring back 18 starters from the previous game, a bowl victory over #15. I really only had to change four starters here from the bowl game depth chart. And then fill in the backups which, again, is fairly simple after attending just a few practices.

When I last put together a 2025 depth chart (right after the bowl game), we were still learning more about what we'll call the "Diego Pavia Rule." That's the Vandy quarterback who successfully argued that the eligibility lost during his junior college seasons cost him NIL earning potential at Vandy. That's what is allowing JC Davis to return for one more season in Champaign at left tackle.

They've since clarified that the waiver is a one-year thing as the NCAA looks into a long-term plan for similar situations. When I made that last depth chart, we didn't know how it would be applied so I simply removed all juco years from everyone's eligibility. I didn't list Alex Capka-Jones as a redshirt-senior; I "removed" his two years at juco and listed him as a redshirt-sophomore.

With this clarification that the Pavia waiver is intended to be a one-time thing while they sort out their long-term policy, I'm returning everyone (besides JC Davis, of course) to their juco-affected eligibility. It might change again before the 2026 season but for now, Alex Capka-Jones has one year of eligibility remaining.